Parallel
by AreYouMarriedRiver
Summary: When a strange man called the Doctor takes John for a ride in the TARDIS, something goes horribly wrong. Now, John is trapped in a parallel world where Sherlock has no idea who John is. How can John fix this?
1. The Doctor

John walked down the street on his way to the grocery. Sherlock had used the last of the milk that morning and hadn't bothered to replace the empty carton. _Typical, _John thought with a sigh. He felt a buzz in his pocket and pulled out his mobile to see a text from Sherlock.

**I may have broken the teacups. Mind picking up some more? -SH**

**All of them? -JW**

John had never met another person who could cause so much trouble in less than five minutes. Sherlock's reply came a few moments later.

**Yes. I was experimenting. -SH**

John was about to reply when a voice caught his attention. He lifted his head to locate the source of the noise and saw a young man wearing a bowtie and braces walking towards him. He was angrily muttering to himself when he suddenly stopped.

"Excuse me, may I borrow your telephone? Sorry, it will only be a moment," the man said, grabbing John's phone before adding, "Probably."

John was stunned into silence, so he stood there watching the strange man point a laser beam at his cell phone. The laser made a funny noise and then the phone's screen lit up.

"Oi! What are you doing to it?" John demanded, confusion written all over his face.

"I got into a row with a couple of Cybermen and misplaced my TARDIS. Luckily, I was able to activate her distress signal before she disappeared. All I need is something to pick up the frequency. My sonic won't do, obviously, so I'm trying to maximize your phone's connectivity. If I'm right," he paused to fiddle around with the technology a bit more. The phone began to beep like a radar and the man smiled triumphantly, "I can use this device to locate the TARDIS!"

John frowned as the man began zooming down the sidewalk with the phone in hand. "That's my-," he began to protest, but saw it was no use. There was no other option but to run after the strange man.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way!" he called to John. _The Doctor? How ridiculous, Doctor who? _thought John.

The phone lead them down alleyways, through yards, and across parking lots, all the while the beeping becoming more and more frequent. John hoped that they would soon stumble upon whatever they were looking for, because the local grocery store only stayed open until six. If he didn't make it by then he would have to take a cab downtown to the 24-hour supermarket. He'd be better off going home and picking up the groceries tomorrow. He was so lost in thought that he bumped right into the Doctor, who had finally stopped running.

"So, where are we, er, Doctor, is it?" John asked. They had stopped beside a blue police box standing in a park. The Doctor eyed it with a look of apprehension and then glanced over his shoulder.

"Well, this is the TARDIS. But I seem to be picking up another signal on this device," the Doctor replied, hitting the phone against the palm of his hand.

"Well, I may have just gotten a text," John said, impatiently.

Now it was the Doctor's turn to look confused. "A text?" He asked, examining the mobile more closely.

"Give it here," John commanded. _Honestly, who hasn't heard of a text? _John retrieved his phone from the stranger's hands only to find that he hadn't received any texts since the last one from Sherlock. Then, the signal that the Doctor had heard sounded again. One word, repeated three times. _Delete, delete, delete_. "What was that?"

The Doctor dashed towards the police box and materialized a key, using it to unlock the door.

"What's your name?" The Doctor asked hurriedly.

"John, but I'd like t-," he began before being interrupted by the Doctor.

"Well, John, thank you for lending me your phone, but I'm going to need you to get into the TARDIS now."

"You mean that thing?" John asked, indicating the police box.

"Yes, this thing! You'll be safe in there," the Doctor assured the man.

"Safe? Safe from what?" It was that moment that a group of large silver robots appeared out of nowhere about four yards from where the two men were standing. John gaped at them, and the Doctor's eyes widened as he made to push John into the TARDIS.

"Safe from them!" The Doctor replied. John didn't need to be told twice. He stepped inside the TARDIS, followed by the Doctor, who closed the doors behind them. John spun around to find that the police box was a great deal larger than he had expected it to be. The Doctor quickly made his way to the center of the room and began pushing buttons and pulling levers, which caused the TARDIS to jerk a bit and make a whirring noise. John looked to the Doctor in confusion.

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space," he stated. "It's sort of like a space ship and sort of like a time machine."

John was starting to think he must have fallen and hit his head earlier because nothing seemed to make any sense. Space? Time travel? And who was this Doctor character?

"I don't mean to be blunt but I've had quite enough for one day. Can I go home now?" John asked desperately. The Doctor laughed and nodded.

"Absolutely, I've sent the Cybermen on a wild goose chase halfway across the galaxy. To London?"

"Yes, please, 221B Baker Street," John replied, exhaling. He just wanted to get home. The Doctor changed a few of the TARDIS settings and soon they were parked on solid ground once more.

"Here you are, John! It was very nice meeting you. I would give you back your mobile but," the Doctor trailed off, holding up the remains of John's phone. "Sorry, apparently the two signals aren't meant to come into contact."

"That's quite alright," said John, wanting more than anything to get out of the TARDIS. He walked towards the door and opened it to see Speedy's right outside. "Well, bye."

The Doctor smiled and gave him a wave goodbye. John left the blue box and closed the door behind him. He walked up to the door and pushed it open. "Sherlock?" He called out as he climbed the steps, but there came no reply. He found the flat empty, but the mess of Sherlock's most recent experiment still cluttered the room. John retreated to the downstairs in search of Mrs. Hudson. She came scurrying out of the kitchen wearing an apron and a coat of flour. "Mrs. Hudson, can I borrow your phone?"

She looked at him strangely for a moment and then said, "Who are you?"

This caught John off guard, but he quickly regained composure and replied, "Mrs. Hudson, it's me."

"Oh, dear, you'll have to forgive me, I'm no good with names," the old woman laughed. John stared at her with a worried look on his face. He was starting to wonder if she had been using too many of those herbal soothers recently.

"John. John Watson. I live upstairs. 221B," he explained, attempting to jog her memory.

"No, that can't be right. That's Sherlock Holmes who lives up there. A fine boy if there ever was one," she beamed. "I think you may have the wrong address."


	2. Scotland Yard

**A/N: Hi, thanks for being so patient while I wrote**** chapter two! (I also made a few minor changes to some of the wording in chapter one.) Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review. :)**

* * *

John blinked at Mrs. Hudson, at a loss for words. Could this be one of Sherlock's experiments or did Mrs. Hudson really not recognize him? "Where's Sherlock?" John asked.

"Probably off on some case, he helps the detectives down at Scotland Yard," Mrs. Hudson informed him. Then, she concernedly asked, "Do you still need a phone, dear?"

John turned to leave with a gruff, "No, thanks." He shut the door behind him and flagged down a cab. "Scotland Yard," he directed the cabby.

When they arrived at the station, John handed the driver some money and bounded into the building, taking the steps up to Lestrade's floor two at a time. When he reached it, he pushed open the doors and began his descent to the detective's office. As he walked by, he noticed several pairs of eyes on him. A bit uneasy, he continued his stride until he made it to the door with the sign D.I. LESTRADE. He entered immediately and said, "Sorry to bother you at work but has Sherlock been around here?"

Lestrade looked up from his paper and said, "Who are you?" _Again with this, _John thought.

"Very funny, Greg. Where's Sherlock? I need to speak with him," John replied impatiently.

The detective inspector rose to his full height and said, "His whereabouts are confidential information at the moment. Who's asking?"

"Confidential? I'm asking!" John insisted, his face growing hot with frustration.

"Well, unless you have some type of relation to the case or authority at Scotland Yard then I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Greg said in a condescending way. John didn't know what was going on, but he decided that Sherlock was at the root of it somehow.

He shifted uncomfortably and said, "Can I at least borrow your phone?" Lestrade complied and handed over his cell phone. John punched in the digits and held it to his ear

"Yes?" Sherlock's voice answered. John breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, some normalcy.

"Did you put them up to this?" John asked accusingly.

There was a pause. Then, "Who is this?"

John was fed up with this act. He spoke angrily into the phone, "This is really getting old, Sherlock."

"What is?" he asked, evidently sincere. Realizing that Sherlock honestly had no idea who John was, he slowly pulled the phone from his ear and hung up.

"You alright, mate?" Lestrade asked, hesitantly reaching for the phone. John handed it to him and walked out.

What on earth was going on? Why didn't anyone remember who he was? He returned to Baker Street and let himself in, careful not to alert Mrs. Hudson. He went upstairs to the flat and walked into his room, but it was empty. All of his belongings were missing. John lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, hoping to God that his life would return to normal when he woke up.

* * *

Was he ever wrong. He awoke early the next morning and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, panicking when he saw the bareness of his room. Before he had the chance to cry out in confusion, he recalled the strange events of the previous night. He had been sure it was a dream, but not so much anymore.

Then John remembered the Doctor and the TARDIS. _This_ _must have something to do with him_, John concluded. The Doctor had said that the TARDIS was some sort of space ship time machine. If the Doctor had been telling the truth and wasn't just a raving lunatic, then that could mean John had gone back in time. It was completely mad, but it was the theory that made the most sense at the moment.

John needed to do some research. He stood up and peeked out of his bedroom door. He could see Sherlock sitting at his desk, probably examining something through his microscope. His laptop lay on the armchair by the fireplace. John just needed to retrieve the computer without being seen.

He silently began to tiptoe across the room, managing to get the laptop and almost make it back to his room before a voice said, "Sleep well?" John cringed at the sound of Sherlock's voice. He spun around and saw the detective still had his back turned. He obviously wasn't too shaken by the fact that a stranger had spent the night in his flat.

John was ready to retreat to the bedroom and lock the door behind him, but he didn't want to start off on the wrong foot. He also didn't want to speak too much with Sherlock until he knew the situation. "Can I borrow your computer?" he asked.

"By all means," Sherlock replied, sounding bored. John didn't know what to say so he returned to the bedroom.

He sat at the bare desk and opened the laptop. The corner of the screen read _8:57 AM _John hovered over the time to see that the date read _June 1, 2012. _So if he hadn't gone back in time, what had happened? He googled 'John Watson', expecting all of the newspaper articles on Sherlock Holmes to come up. To his surprise, not a single one appeared in the results. He surfed through dozens of pages of search results but there was nothing that related to the army doctor himself. He typed in the address of his blog only to receive a server error.

"We're sorry, that URL does not exist," it read, and then went on to list possible related searches. John closed the window and stumbled backwards, landing on the bed. His head was spinning as he wondered where the Doctor had taken him. Everything was normal except for one thing – there was no record of a John Watson. It was as if he had never existed.

He ran through a list of all the sci-fi movies he had ever seen. He was in a world almost identical to his own, but there was one big difference. It was like a parallel world. That was the only explanation John could come up with, and it seemed to fit.

John was not okay with this parallel universe – he wanted to get back to his own universe. He just needed to find out how. The Doctor was probably his best bet, unless there was someone else who owned a time travelling space ship. Still, there was no way to get into contact with the Doctor, he could be anywhere in time and space by now! The situation was very not good and made John want to crawl back into bed and sleep.

Instead, he returned to the computer and did a search for 'the doctor tardis'. He perused through search results for over an hour, but he didn't find much. There was a man who claimed to have met the Doctor and a few blurry photos of a blue telephone box. The only useful information he had come across was the name 'Torchwood'. It was some sort of secret organization that was related to the Doctor, and it was the only lead.

John did not look forward to facing this Sherlock, but it was inevitable. He needed to find Torchwood and for that he would have to consult a detective.


End file.
